Dreaming
by just drifting
Summary: Alice's visions can give her an almost sleep-like state. Jasper now understands Edward's facination with watching Bella sleep. Because Alice loves the times where she can delve into these "dreams" and Jasper loves being there to watch her as she does.


Alice and Jasper were lying together on one of the couches in the living room. The house was deserted for once, finally giving the two some much needed peace. If it were possible for vampires to be exhausted, they would be. Everyone had been so worked up over preparing for the battle with Victoria, and now, after it was over, they were finding it hard to slowly drift back into the usual mediocre life-styles.

They were looking out the window onto the back garden and the surrounding forest, watching as the trees swayed softly in the light wind, helping to relax them further. Alice let out a sigh of content and snuggled further into Jasper's body, revealing in that, although to humans he felt cold, to her, his body radiated heat. Jasper smiled down lovingly at the angel in his arms, wondering still how it came that she was his. Alice looked back up at him, her eyes wide, and let a slow smile cover her face. She was content here, in her lover's arms, with everything finally right in the world. She let her body and her mind relax and felt almost as if she could…sleep.

She had never really considered what it would be like to sleep, because she could not remember ever doing so in her human life. But now with Bella a part of her family, she had started wondering about it more and more. She wondered what it was like to lose consciousness, to not be aware of everything that was going on around you, to let another world, different from your own, engulf you, to live out other situations where you had no business of being. But then, as she had thought about it more, she realized that, even as a vampire, she could still get very close to sleep. She remembered when she had asked Jasper about sleep, curious in her naivety.

"_I remember it vaguely," he tells her. "When I slept, I just blacked out. I would close my eyes in the darkness and open them to light. But other people, they dreamt. They saw pictures and scenes that played out like a movie in their heads. Often they were in their dreams, and they did things they would never think of doing in real life. A lot of the time, sleep and dreaming were their escape from the harsh reality of the world they lived in"_

_She remembers him thinking a moment, trying to find more to tell her, to please her, to fulfill her need to understand the humans. He begins again slowly, as if he is still working out what he wants to say. "I suppose dreaming would be a bit like your visions, Alice."_

She had pondered this often, and come to believe Jasper's words true. Sometimes, when she felt relaxed or close to tired, she let her visions overtake her, falling into them like a human would a dream. She knew she was not really dreaming, because her "dreams" would really come true, where as a human's dreams were just make-believe, created to satisfy their imaginations. But still, her visions were as close as any immortal would get to dreaming, and she relished the fact that _she _was the one who was granted that privilege.

Alice thought that maybe now, when she was so comfortable and happy, she might be able to "dream". She lent up to kiss Jasper softy and then snuggled down into the comfort of his arms, her eyes fluttering closed and the pictures she had locked away before now coming to life in her mind. Jasper looked down again at his wife and saw that her eyes were closed. He smiled softly as Alice's body relaxed even further into his, and softly stroked up and down her arm soothingly. He knew that Alice loved to let go of her visions and let them play out in her head at will. He knew that her mind was constantly working to keep the visions at bay, and so when she let them lose she was able to relax, and fall into an almost dream-like state. And he knew that she didn't just do it because it eased her mind, she enjoyed "sleeping" because it made her more human. Jasper didn't begrudge her that, not in the slightest, even though sometimes someone like Rosalie did. He didn't long for sleep, he didn't long to be more human. He was happy being a vampire, but he was more happy that she was happy. It was all the mattered to him.

He remembered one time when Emmett had been teasing Edward, looking to him to back him up.

"_You're crazy, Edward! What in the world could be so interesting about watching a girl sleep for hours? What does she _do _in her sleep?" Emmett laughs, shoving his brother good-naturedly in the shoulder. Edward stays silent, not giving Emmett the pleasure of more ribbing. But Emmett looks for more, like he always does._

"_Don't you agree, Jasper? It's insane! I would go mad with boredom, wouldn't you?" Now it's his turn to stay silent and Emmett looks at him weirdly, obviously wondering why he is doing so._

"_Because he watches Alice just like I watch Bella," Edward answers Emmett's unspoken question. Emmett looks confused at the answer so he turns to him._

"_But Alice doesn't sleep…" When he refuses to say anything in fear of fueling the fire, Edward does the honors. _

"_Alice's visions are much like sleep. Jasper _loves _to watch Alice "sleep"," Edward says, a smug smile coming to his face. Emmett looks at Jasper like he too is insane, which maybe he is, but he feels the need to defend Alice, so his sides switch._

"_You wouldn't understand, Emmett, you haven't experienced the…amazingness of it, Rosalie doesn't–" _

"_No! Rosalie doesn't get that pleasure, even though she wants it most, and you and Alice and you and Bella just have to rub it in and make her hurt even more!" Emmett yells, cutting him off, and running out to comfort his wife. _

Jasper felt sorry for Rosalie sometimes, the only one of them who really craved humanity, and she couldn't get anywhere near it, like Alice and Bella could, but he was selfishly glad that Alice got that privilege, because he was the one who got to relish in it. And how he loved to watch Alice "sleep".

He used to think Edward so weird for going to watch Bella each night as she slept, but now he could understand him completely. To see the different emotions crossing Alice's face and wonder what she was seeing. To see her guard completely down in only a way that sleep – or "sleep" – could bring… it fulfilled him in a way he couldn't describe. He just knew he loved these times, probably just as much as Alice herself.

Hours passed as Alice "slept", and Jasper never took his eyes off her, nor did he grow in the least bit bored. Eventually, as the skies started to darken, Alice's eyes finally opened. She looked around her quickly and a slow smile spread across her face. When her eyes landed on Jasper her grin grew even wider.

"I've just had the most wonderful dream," she said in a faraway, dreamy voice that caused Jasper to laugh.

"What were you "dreaming" about, sweetheart?" he asked, turning her around so she was facing towards him, and pulling her tightly to him.

"You," she said, and buried her head into the crook of his neck. "It's always you." Jasper smiled softly and kissed the top of Alice's spiky head of hair.

As much as he loved Alice when she was "sleeping", he loved her even more when she was awake, because that was when he got to live out the dream with her.


End file.
